The Love of Death

Chapter 1

I ran out of time. Thats all I could think as the knife plunged into my neck and I fell to the ground. It must have severed my carotid artery, blood pouring too quickly out of my neck for anything else to have happened. In a few minutes I'll be dead. Lovely, I would die in a pool of my own blood, murdered by one of the people my deceased parents owed money to for either drugs or gambling debts. Maybe even the bloody mafia itself.

Those were my last thoughts as I slipped into the afterlife.

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Shivering, I stood by a dock. It looked like one of those docks from a pirate movie. Except everything was well kept up, no rotting boards or moss anywhere in sight. There were two places for ships to dock, each surrounded by large wooden poles to tie the ships down while they were loaded or unloaded. But based on the two giant lines forming on either side of the dock the boats were most likely ferries of some type.

In front of me was a large man, around 6'5" with well built muscles in all the right places. To say he was handsome was an understatement. He had long silver hair, strands of black fading in and out of it, a chiselled jawline and high cheekbones. Horns were protruding from his head while a pair of wicked black wings came from his back. But what really caught my attention were his glowing orange eyes, not unlike a raging wildfire.

"Name?" He said in a sexy deep voice. Honestly could this man get any hotter?

"Yours first." I said glaring at him. No need to let him know the effect he had on me.

He let out a sexy chuckle that had me shivering and it wasn't from the cold. So much for not letting him know. "Ronan, now I believe it's your turn." he said with a mischievous grin on his face.

"Cassie." I said as I took in how that grin made him even hotter. Seriously was there no fucking end to this torture? "Where am I anyway? I could've sworn I died."

His grin faded but the amusement stayed in his eyes. "You did die Cassie, very brutally might I add." He said as I winced. Yeah, I fucking knew that but thanks for telling me asshole. Of course I didn't say that to him but based on his reaction he saw it on my face. The amusement faded from his eyes and I could've sworn I saw fire replace it. This wasn't good.

Ronan grabbed the whip he had strapped around his waist. It was a nasty looking thing made of bones from several human spines. Fear coursed through me as I tensed and prepared to run.

Noticing this he grabbed my arm in a viselike grip, preventing me from escape. "You're in the underworld sweetie." He said sweetie as venemously as possible. The amount of fury I felt emanating from him made him seem one-hundred times bigger and I cowered in fear. He reminded me of a wild beast. No, beast wasn't the right word. He reminded me of a demon from the deepest pits of hell.

I heard someone whimper and it took me a minute to realize it was me. Why the hell was I whimpering anyway? Because some demon got pissed off and yelled at me? Oh hell no, no one speaks to me that way and gets away with it. Not even a stupid demon boy from the underworld.

Looking at him like I was about to murder him like those people murdered me I poked his chest and said "Thanks for telling me I was murdered like I couldn't fucking tell already. My last memory is of being stabbed in the neck, feeling fire in my veins as my blood poured out of my neck because of some stupid debt my parents owed them for their own shitty habits." His eyes widened at the venom in my voice. "I don't care who you are or what rank you have down here but you do not get to talk to me like I'm some random scum on the bottom of your steel-toe boots."

He let out another deep chuckle as I finished my rant and put his hand on my face, lightly caressing it. "The last person that talked to me like that ended up as dog chow. But I like you so I'll cut you a deal..." the next words he said would change my life forever. "I'll go topside and take care of all of your little problems, such as the people who killed you, and you stay here and live with me in the underworld."